THE TEXT OF THE CODE
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Hammurabi, King of Babylonia and Johns, C. H. W. (Claude Hermann Walter)
§ 1. If a man weave a spell and put a ban upon a man, and has not justified himself, he that wove the spell upon him shall be put to death.
§ 2. If a man has put a spell upon a man, and has not justified himself, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river, he shall plunge into the holy river, and if the holy river overcome him, he who wove the spell upon him shall take to himself his house. If the holy river makes that man to be innocent, and has saved him, he who laid the spell upon him shall be put to death. He who plunged into the holy river shall take to himself the house of him who wove the spell upon him.
§ 3. If a man, in a case pending judgement, has uttered threats against the witnesses, or has not justified the word that he has spoken, if that case be a capital suit, that man shall be put to death.
§ 4. If he has offered corn or money to the witnesses, he shall himself bear the sentence of that case.
§ 5. If a judge has judged a judgement, decided a decision, granted a sealed sentence, and afterwards has altered his judgement, that judge, for the alteration of the judgement that he judged, one shall put him to account, and he shall pay twelvefold the penalty which was in the said judgement, and in the assembly one shall expel him from his judgement seat, and he shall not return, and with the judges at a judgement he shall not take his seat.
§ 6. If a man has stolen the goods of temple or palace, that man shall be killed, and he who has received the stolen thing from his hand shall be put to death.
§ 7. If a man has bought silver, gold, manservant or maidservant, ox or sheep or ass, or anything whatever its name, from the hand of a man’s son, or of a man’s slave, without witness and bonds, or has received the same on deposit, that man has acted the thief, he shall be put to death.
§ 8. If a man has stolen ox or sheep or ass, or pig, or ship, whether from the temple or the palace, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he be a poor man, he shall render tenfold. If the thief has nought to pay, he shall be put to death.
§ 9. If a man who has lost something of his, something of his that is lost has been seized in the hand of a man, the man in whose hand the lost thing has been seized has said, ‘A giver gave it me,’ or ‘I bought it before witnesses,’ and the owner of the thing that is lost has said, ‘Verily, I will bring witnesses that know my lost property,’ the buyer has brought the giver who gave it him and the witnesses before whom he bought it, and the owner of the lost property has brought the witnesses who know his lost property, the judge shall see their depositions, the witnesses before whom the purchase was made and the witnesses knowing the lost property shall say out before God what they know; and if the giver has acted the thief he shall be put to death, the owner of the lost property shall take his lost property, the buyer shall take the money he paid from the house of the giver.
§ 10. If the buyer has not brought the giver who gave it him and the witnesses before whom he bought, and the owner of the lost property has brought the witnesses knowing his lost property, the buyer has acted the thief, he shall be put to death; the owner of the lost property shall take his lost property.
§ 11. If the owner of the lost property has not brought witnesses knowing his lost property, he has lied, he has stirred up strife, he shall be put to death.
§ 12. If the giver has betaken himself to his fate, the buyer shall take from the house of the giver fivefold as the penalty of that case.
§ 13. If that man has not his witnesses near, the judge shall set him a fixed time, up to six months, and if within six months he has not driven in his witnesses, that man has lied, he himself shall bear the blame of that case.
§ 14. If a man has stolen the son of a freeman, he shall be put to death.
§ 15. If a man has caused either a palace slave or palace maid, or a slave of a poor man or a poor man’s maid, to go out of the gate, he shall be put to death.
§ 16. If a man has harboured in his house a manservant or a maidservant, fugitive from the palace, or a poor man, and has not produced them at the demand of the commandant, the owner of that house shall be put to death.
§ 17. If a man has captured either a manservant or a maidservant, a fugitive, in the open country and has driven him back to his master, the owner of the slave shall pay him two shekels of silver.
§ 18. If that slave will not name his owner he shall drive him to the palace, and one shall enquire into his past, and cause him to return to his owner.
§ 19. If he confine that slave in his house, and afterwards the slave has been seized in his hand, that man shall be put to death.
§ 20. If the slave has fled from the hand of his captor, that man shall swear by the name of God, to the owner of the slave, and shall go free.
§ 21. If a man has broken into a house, one shall kill him before the breach and bury him in it (?).
§ 22. If a man has carried on brigandage, and has been captured, that man shall be put to death.
§ 23. If the brigand has not been caught, the man who has been despoiled shall recount before God what he has lost, and the city and governor in whose land and district the brigandage took place shall render back to him whatever of his was lost.
§ 24. If it was a life, the city and governor shall pay one mina of silver to his people.
§ 25. If in a man’s house a fire has been kindled, and a man who has come to extinguish the fire has lifted up his eyes to the property of the owner of the house, and has taken the property of the owner of the house, that man shall be thrown into that fire.
§ 26. If either a ganger or a constable, whose going on an errand of the king has been ordered, goes not, or hires a hireling and sends him in place of himself, that ganger or constable shall be put to death; his hireling shall take to himself his house.
§ 27. If a ganger or a constable, who is diverted to the fortresses of the king, and after him one has given his field and his garden to another, and he has carried on his business, if he returns and regains his city, one shall return to him his field and his garden, and he shall carry on his business himself.
§ 28. If a ganger or a constable who is diverted to the fortresses of the king, his son be able to carry on the business, one shall give him field and garden and he shall carry on his father’s business.
§ 29. If his son is young and is not able to carry on his father’s business, one-third of the field and garden shall be given to his mother, and his mother shall rear him.
§ 30. If a ganger or a constable has left alone his field, or his garden, or his house, from the beginning of his business, and has caused it to be waste, a second after him has taken his field, his garden, or his house, and has gone about his business for three years, if he returns and regains his city, and would cultivate his field, his garden, and his house, one shall not give them to him; he who has taken them and carried on his business shall carry it on.
§ 31. If it is one year only and he had let it go waste, and he shall return, one shall give his field, his garden, and his house, and he shall carry on his business.
§ 32. If a ganger or a constable who is diverted on an errand of the king’s, a merchant has ransomed him and caused him to regain his city, if in his house there is means for his ransom, he shall ransom his own self; if in his house there is no means for his ransom, he shall be ransomed from the temple of his city; if in the temple of his city there is not means for his ransom, the palace shall ransom him. His field, his garden, and his house shall not be given for his ransom.
§ 33. If either a governor or a magistrate has taken to himself the men of the levy, or has accepted and sent on the king’s errand a hired substitute, that governor or magistrate shall be put to death.
§ 34. If either a governor or a magistrate has taken to himself the property of a ganger, has plundered a ganger, has given a ganger to hire, has stolen from a ganger in a judgement by high-handedness, has taken to himself the gift the king has given the ganger, that governor or magistrate shall be put to death.
§ 35. If a man has bought the cattle or sheep which the king has given to the ganger from the hand of the ganger, he shall be deprived of his money.
§ 36. The field, garden, and house of a ganger, or constable, or a tributary, he shall not give for money.
§ 37. If a man has bought the field, garden, or house of a ganger, a constable, or a tributary, his tablet shall be broken and he shall be deprived of his money. The field, garden, or house he shall return to its owner.
§ 38. The ganger, constable, or tributary shall not write off to his wife, or his daughter, from the field, garden, or house of his business, and he shall not assign it for his debt.
§ 39. From the field, garden, and house which he has bought and acquired, he may write off to his wife or his daughter and give for his debt.
§ 40. A votary, merchant, or foreign sojourner may sell his field, his garden, or his house; the buyer shall carry on the business of the field, garden, or house which he has bought.